By Paul R. Swanson, MSM, 32° KCCH
I am writing this before the actual finish line of the various lodge surveys in Florida Masonic District 7. We ended up with over 100 surveys returned
Please remember that this survey was not conducted following the best procedures and format for surveys. Masons are a stubborn lot and the rules needed to be bent to allow for any participation from our masonic area. The mixing of hard-copy surveys with electronic ones is an example. Every single hand copy turned in was either not completed as directed or some other error. In my opinion, we can still find value in the responses despite the many issues the respondents threw at the process.
The feedback on the electronic survey was that many didn’t want to answer all the questions, most of which were required, or the survey didn’t count. To have any validity, a mailout survey needs to have at a minimum a 50% return rate. That simply didn’t happen with all the resistance from the old-timers in this district.
There is a chance after talking to John Paniccia, the Masonic Chairman for the State of Florida Membership Committee that this concept of a survey may be rolled out statewide in Florida. If so, I will adjust several of the questions based on what I have learned from the Masonic District 6 and 7 surveys. Stay tuned.
What can you do to help your lodge based on the surveys we have?
This theme will be our main focus. Fellowship was 97.6% selected as the reason for attending the lodge, followed by 73.2% for education/self-improvement, and then, in third place was attending a degree at 63.8%.
From those numbers, things that help with fellowship are going to be a hit. In most of our lodge meetings, additional masonic/esoteric education is desired. Meet that desire. If you need to find inspiration for masonic education, check out the last page of this article for suggestions on topics, videos, etc. Simply find what your lodge likes and try to meet that demand. Note, this is not the current Grand Lodge-driven MLT or other Masonic Digest-related training of the last few years that is wanted by the craft.
Several other large-volume surveys of brothers (two I know of were 7,500 and 2,500) reflected that masons are leaving because they are not finding what they want. One of those things is masonic education and making men better, which we claim in our advertising. Our very small surveys reflect this to be true.
In another question on why brothers attend lodge, by a landslide the answer was to become a better man/character building, with a response of 87.5%.
The Worshipful Master can be certain that if he helps the lodge increase their fellowship opportunities and increases the opportunities for Masonic education, he will get a positive response from the membership.
Another question from the survey is, what describes the main factor that influenced your decision to join the Freemasons? The responses were another landslide for friends and family at 88.3%, followed distantly by personal betterment at 38.3%.
This information can be used for the Empowered Volunteer program I have presented to the district and can also be reviewed at this website you are already on. Check out the other articles you may have an interest in.
Another opportunity for improvement was the question about service improvements. More social events outside of monthly meetings were selected by 71.8% of respondents. This was followed by more charity efforts at 68.2% and providing more fraternal time at 44.9%. The current meetings are not meeting our membership needs and we can improvise some improvements.
Another question, overall how satisfied are you with your Blue Lodge experience? Very satisfied received 63%. Somewhat satisfied received 27.2%. Of the 94 respondents from our district 10 members were less than somewhat satisfied.
Here is where experience and education play a role in the survey analysis. In volunteer groups, the majority of your membership should be “very satisfied” if you are to have any cohesiveness. This is even more true for fraternal groups who place a high emphasis on peace and harmony.
In a bit of a deep dive, I tried to make sure that those not “totally satisfied” were not the ones who said they only attended lodge less than once a year. Of the 90 who answered the question, 25 respondents were once a year or less! Most of those respondents were very satisfied with their lodge. Thus, they as a group are not skewing the curve for this question, it is the active members who are not as happy as they want to be. That is a huge opportunity for the lodge leaders in the next few years. Happy members attend more frequently, tell their friends and family about their experiences, and in general make more efforts to support their group. That is a win-win situation. You are only limited by your creativity in how to approach the issue.
Lastly, of the questions I am addressing in this short article, the one we can appreciate is, “Do you believe Masonry offers mankind anything of value?” Of the 94 surveys only 67 have currently responded to this question. Their answer was overwhelmingly positive for those 67 who answered the question. Many brothers refused to follow directions and say yes, but their responses to a fill-in-the-blank were positive ones.
The takeaway from this is that we believe in our product brothers, and we believe it is a benefit to our society as well. Incidentally, this was true for the respondents in District 6 as well in their recent survey.
I am attempting to do the work of becoming “well-read” regarding Masonry and membership building.
Note: I own each of these listed sources and I often have them highlighted and underlined for reference.
- A Pilgrim’s Path: One Man’s Road to the Masonic Temple, John J. Robinson, 1993
- House Undivided: The Story of Freemasonry and the Civil War, By Allen E. Roberts, 1961, 1990
- Masonry Dissected, By Samuel Prichard, 1730 Expanded and revised Commentary by Harry Carr, Arturo de Hoyos, and S. Brent Morris
- The Craft Perfected!: Actualizing Our Craft, Brother John S. Nagy, 2019
- The Craft Unmasked!: The uncommon origin of Freemasonry and its practice, By John S. Nagy, 2014
- Cracking the Freemason’s Code: The Truth About Solomon’s Key and the Brotherhood, By Robert L.D. Cooper, 2006
- The Empowered Volunteer Rebuilds America: One Fraternal, Civic, and Veterans Group at a Time, By Paul R. Swanson, e-book format for a Fire or your personal computer, only through Amazon, $3.00/copy
If you have read this far then here are a few potential aids in engaging your visions for character improvement or personal betterment.
These can also be used for leading the masonic education which the membership surveys say the brothers want.
They are just guides, the “Work” is internal and can’t be simply pressing an “I Believe Button” while avoiding the effort and thinking involved. This has everything to do with individual work.
The path involves the use of the masonic tools listed in the 3 degrees in the Blue Lodge. The lectures are your guide, but other help is available if you prefer. Most of these podcasts and videos are on interesting masonic topics.
Here is a short list.
- John S Nagy (on YouTube) 789 followers
- What is a Mason 22.5K followers
- Refracted Light 848 followers
- Masonic Traveler 6.32K followers
- Whence Came You 5.95K followers
- My Freemasonry 1.3K followers
- Masonic Roundtable 15.7K followers
- Freemasonry Squared 4.57K followers
- http://BuildingHiram.blogspot.com for more information from Coach Nagy